My crazy conspiracy theory for why Donald Trump now wants to be president
When it comes to Trump’s motivations, follow the money — or, in Trump’s case, the lack of it.
So in just this week alone, we’ve had quite the window into Donald Trump’s financial and business practices:
- Trump finally fulfilled his earlier public pledges to donate money to veterans’ groups, but only after the hard-working staff here at The Post tried to figure out if he actually had. He groused a lot about having to fulfill that promise, too.
- We’ve seen how super-classy the operation was over at the now-defunct Trump University.
- A bona fide billionaire questioned whether Trump was really worth all that much.
That last item comes from Mark Cuban, who provided a blunt assessment of Trump’s business acumen:
“Cuban said he went over Trump’s FEC filings and saw Trump was “horrible” at many aspects of business.
“I think he’s good at real estate; I do give him a lot of credit there. I think he’s good at branding real estate,” he said. “I don’t think he’s very good at brands for non-real estate products. And, to me, it’s more a reflection of desperation.
“So when you’re putting your name on steaks, and you’re putting your name on water, you’re putting your name on playing cards, you’re putting your name on all this nonsense, right? You’re not gonna make big bucks, no matter what. It’s not like Trump Steaks were gonna make him $100 million. It’s not like it was gonna make him $5 million.”
“I asked, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ Are you that desperate for money?’ Seriously,” Cuban said, saying Trump couldn’t say no if someone was going to write him a check.”
This raises an interesting point about Trump’s business strategy and what it means for his presidential run. As Norm Ornstein points out in Politico, Trump is continuing to actively manage his businesses while running for president. Indeed, it’s gotten to the point where he’s taking a trip to Scotland for the reopening of a golf resort on the same day as the Brexit vote:
“Trump’s Scotland trip — in view of all the world — is particularly striking. It is not unusual for presidential candidates to travel abroad, including presidential nominees. Many do it to solidify their foreign policy credentials, to learn firsthand about key countries, and to meet and get to know important foreign leaders. For major party nominees, there can be an added benefit: foreign leaders unsure whether their guest might actually become president tend to be friendly and complimentary.
But in the case of Trump’s visit, this is not just a case of the use of a public position, that of a major party presidential nominee in the making, for private gain — including burnishing even further the Trump name as a marketing device. It is interfering in a major way with American foreign policy — which supports Cameron and his effort to keep Britain in the EU — and the delicate relationship between the United States and Britain, while potentially encouraging major international economic turmoil and creating a major rift with Cameron.”
Tim O’Brien makes a similar point in Bloomberg on Trump’s mixing of personal business and politics:
“[Trump] has said for years that he believes that a large part of his fortune is tied up in the value of his brand, which he has never been shy about promoting. Recall that it was only a few months ago that Trump turned a news conference following three of his primary and caucus victories into an infomercial in which he touted the virtues of Trump Water, Trump Wine and Trump Steaks (Trump’s steak business is actually defunct and he was displaying another company’s product). So it’s worth pondering whether Trump might turn the White House into his own version of Wal-Mart.”
I have been of the opinion that Trump’s presidential run has been awful for a business that depends almost entirely on the ability to brand his name to affluent customers. And Trump’s behavior over the past few days raises a disturbing scenario; that he intends to use the power of the presidency to arrest any slide in his business enterprises.
As objectionable as I find Trump — and I do, I really do — I would have rejected this scenario until pretty recently. But consider how Trump reacted to two recent business reversals. When a judge ruled against Trump and granted access to court documents in the Trump University civil suit, the presumptive GOP nominee claimed the judge was biased against him because he was “Mexican.” As Will Saletan points out in Slate, after Trump lost in court he resorted to racism as a way to put pressure on the judge.
Speaking of racism, Trump also wasn’t too happy about the PGA moving the World Golf Championship from Miami to Mexico City:
“Trump, in Sacramento, weighed in on the World Golf Championships moving to Mexico City:
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) June 2, 2016
What Trump did not mention in that little campaign rant is that he’s steamed about this because it costs him money. David Francis explains in Foreign Policy:
“For 55 straight years, the PGA Tour has been going to Doral, Florida, for an annual tournament. From 1962 until 2006, it visited for the Doral Open. In 2007, it began hosting the World Golf Championship-Cadillac Championship. In 2012, Donald Trump bought the course, renaming it Trump National Doral Miami. Now, four years later, the tournament is slapping the Republican frontrunner in the face and moving it to the country he bashes more than any other: Mexico….”
The Miami Herald reported Wednesday that the move was made because the tour couldn’t find a sponsor to replace Cadillac.
But Trump made clear, on Tuesday evening and again on Wednesday, that he believed the tour pulled out due to his controversial policies toward Mexicans. Speaking on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Tuesday night, he said, “They’re moving it to Mexico City which, by the way, I hope they have kidnapping insurance. But they’re moving it to Mexico City. And I’m saying, you know, what’s going on here? It is so sad when you look at what’s going on with our country.”
Yes, it is sad. Trump is using his presidential campaign to try to counteract reversals he might be suffering in the business world.
At this point, the only power Trump has is using Sean Hannity as his personal ventriloquist’s dummy his bully pulpit. But anyone who thinks that Trump would not use the vast powers of the presidency to advance his own business interests is delusional.
I don’t know why Donald Trump decided to run for president in the first place. But I’m beginning to wonder if his motivation to win now is less about making America great again and more about avoiding yet another Trump bankruptcy.
Editor’s Note: Originally published by Daniel Drezner on The Washington Post
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to PostEverything. Follow @dandrezner
